Israelcraft

Chapter 12 Sailing to the Delta

Mobile phones were present, as they are everywhere these days and some were filming Johannes sketching.

Captain Herman Nathaniel Bowditch, seemed to be in a distant world, as the crowd around Johannes separated ways.
Art was in Herman’s blood. Landscape painting had 0nce been his dream. And Herman saw himself in Johannes. Watching him sketching had flipped a switch in him, and he had decided that, after the boat tour, he would go shopping at Winsor & Newton in Catnip Arcade, where they had the best art supplies in the city.

Herman came from hard working folk, who managed. He was also the namesake and umteen times great grandson of Nathaniel Bowditch, Mathematician and Author, who lived from 1773 to 1838 and wrote the book, “The New American Practical Navigator” in 1802, which remains in use today on United States Navy vessels ¹; and he loved the sea.
Herman knew of his heritage, and, of course; was influenced by it. Getting a college education would have been an impossible financial stretch for his parents, who had had their hands full with his brothers and sisters. He had tried earning and financing his own education, but in the end, he decided to join the Merchant Marines and become a navigator.
The Merchant Marines meant years of commitment; and the Navy Reserve afterwards. For years his time was theirs for the most part; and when it wasn’t, he was recuperating. There was no time to paint. He had known he wouldn’t have time for it when he joined. He just didn’t how much he would miss it.
That was ten years ago, and now he had a wife and family.

Johannes put the last touches to Angelina’s shoes and hair and gave her the drawing. She handed him their agreed upon fee.
She was ecstatic.
It was a masterpiece.
She absolutely loved it.
She was a gymnast, not an artist; but she had a natural instinct and a discerning eye. She was so happy she had commissioned Johannes.

There was more going on here, to be sure, even if neither of them were aware of it yet.

The boat set out, moving at a brisk clip.
In no time they were mid river heading downstream. Johannes took a place in view of the captain. There was something magnetic about him.

It was an understatement to say that there was something magnetic about Captain Bowditch. He had so many talents. He was one of those wonders who excelled in everything; and he was pleasing to the eye as well, much like Johannes.

Anyway, for whatever reason, Johannes was about to draw him.
He took out the last folio sheet; though he had no more. He had meant it for a paid commission.
He could always show a drawing of the captain as a sample of his work.
Now he would really needed to get drawing paper, he thought.
He didn’t know if the $50 Angelina had given him would buy a sketchbook,
but he did know how he felt about her.
He was lovestruck, smitten from the get go; the get go being when he first saw her near the bottom of the stairs as he was in flight. SHE was the reason he seemingly paused in mid air, one toe on the railing; in an extraordinary, impossibly long pause, on the way down.
Johannes was sixteen, but where he came from, sixteen was more like twenty four.
The only time Johannes wasn’t thinking of Angelina was when he was drawing; except, of course, when he was drawing her; and he’d only been in love for half an hour.
He took his mind off her now, and got to work drawing the captain. He sketched some light ovals; some long, some wide, where he wanted the head and body on the page, and in a few swift strokes, roughed out the captain’s pose at the steering wheel. Now he concentrated on his head, getting the proportions and shape right, and the nose in its proper place in relation to the other features, erasing and correcting as he went. Then he went over all of it all again, getting the arms just right, adding his cap, white short sleeved uniform shirt with decorations, white trousers, and shoes.
He would fill in the background later.

Enough is enough, he decided.

Climbing to the upper deck, he was feeling great; ready to enjoy the scenery.
He strolled around the railing to get a three hundred sixty degree view of his surroundings and took a look through the viewing binoculars in the downstream direction. The boat was hugging the eastern shoreline; passing under the swinging bridges and the two lane vehicle bridge. Beyond it, on the other side, the river widened into a swimming area. A lifeguard was sitting in a tower, under the shade of a colorful umbrella. Some swimmers were sunbathing on a wooden raft in the water, and a group of snorkelers were bobbing around it. Others were swimming between buoys farther out. In the shallows, toddlers were shovelling wet sand into little rectangular boxes, and making a village of bungalows that was melting as they played. A group of mothers were chatting at a picnic table by the water, keeping a sharp eye on their pint sized look alikes.
He tried the viewing binoculars at the other end of the upper deck. What he was seeing now, sailing downstream, and looking upstream, is what he had seen in front of him to his left just a moment ago. He saw the toddlers still building their melting bungalow village, as their mothers laughed and set out a picnic lunch. One of the sunbathers looked too red to be in the sun. The swans had gained in numbers and were in the river where the water was deepest, also heading downstream. He could see fishing boats upriver. He was fascinated with these viewing binoculars, but would think about it later.
Now he followed the left hand rail down, taking in the view.
The stacked orange cargo boxes were at the end of the deck on the left side. And in the gap between the boxes and the railing, in a small sunny spot, the THE ONLY OTHER CAT IN THE VICINITY was sleeping.
Johannes immediately recognized him from Stubbytail’s dream.
He was a bit younger now, just having a nap in a quiet patch of sun on a glorious spring day; disturbing no one.
Johannes had intuited that this was Stubbytail’s intended. Why else would he have been in her dream?
Johannes remembered people and animals particularly well once he had drawn them, and he had drawn THE ONLY OTHER CAT IN THE VICINITY while he was in Stubbytail’s dream. But he also particularly remembered him because of the astonished look on his face when Stubbytail vanished from his side after the water drained out of the ancient irrigation system reservoir.

It was lucky Johannes never tired of drawing, because he now felt compelled to draw, again. He took out Stubbytail’s notebook. He was not sleeping quietly. Perhaps he was dreaming; this way staying for a bit (long enough to draw him), then moving again, and staying that way for a bit. Johannes drew him a few times. He turned onto his back, yawned a huge yawn, and stretched an uninhibited, spontaneous, rehabilitating stretch. And Johannes drew. Then he relaxed back into sleep.

Now enough WAS enough, Johannes decided for sure; and put his drawing materials back into his shoulder bag.

The captain was on his megaphone now, talking about the high water level, and its benefits to the flora and fauna, saying …”there are even fishermen who specialize in flood fishing”. For the kindergarteners, he elaborated: “That means some fishermen fish especially on a day like today; after a flood.”
Then he suggested that the kindergarteners go to the upper deck to see the buildings he was about to show them, and a panorama view of the delta, as the boat would be changing course. Angelina and her co-worker got to the business of getting the kindergarteners onto the upper deck.

Johannes’ notebook was filling up pretty quickly. And the upper deck was too; with half pints and Angelina the gymnast and her co-worker. As the children were relocating, the captain went on about the approaching delta. He had a theatrical side which I didn’t mention before. His way was t0 hold everyone in suspense until they got to the end of his sentence. It came naturally to him.
So this wasn’t just another boring presentation. He couldn’t have been more entertaining if he’d been in costume. Everyone was perked up to attention, including the kindergarteners, who needed to be reminded over and again, to watch their step as they ascended.
He was saying:
“Rivers are bodies of fresh water generally flowing from high elevations toward an ocean or lake, or combining with other rivers. Deltas exist as the lowest part of these rivers. It is in these deltas where a river’s flow slows and spreads out to create sediment rich dry areas, and fertile wetlands and vegetation.”
Now he gave an example of how this delta area was being used.
“There is a family business I am going to show you in a moment, that combines raising fish and ducks with pear farming and depends on recycling. Duck excrement is a natural fertilizer for fruit trees. And the water from the pools the fish are raised in, is also rich in nutrients, and is used to irrigate the pear orchards. Duck meat, and eggs, and the fish they grow, are all very popular locally; and their pears are the best on the market.
You can see it on your far right. Those buildings there with the ducklings in front.”

By this time the kindergarteners were reassembled all along the rail on the upper deck with their caretakers down on their level, pointing so each of them saw the ducklings and buildings.

And they spoke about it many times in kindergarten after that; right up until the last day of the school year. They even wrote a little poem about it that was recited at their final presentation with all the parents watching. It was performed in front of a backdrop the children had made from three white sheets sewn together, with pear trees, sky, and sunshine, painted on them. It was quite a routine for a short poem, but they filled it in with a charming little duck dance and kindergarteners as fishes swimming up and down the eiles. It was certainly clear that Angelina and her co-worker knew how to take advantage of an opportunity; and before they were finished, every single child knew all about the family business on the delta.

The captain was speaking:
“I’m sorry we can’t get any closer. We must turn back now; we are running late”.
He got off his megaphone and steered the boat in a wide ark to the left, against the current.

1. Captain Herman Nathaniel Bowditch is a fictional character, but Nathaniel Bowditch, is not. He did write “The New American Practical Navigator” in 1802, and it does remain in use today on United States Navy vessels. ↩︎